Men have long sought to derive energy from the sun. Many of such endeavors are described in the book "Solar Energy" by Daniel Behrman, published by Little Brown & Co., copyright 1976. Such book describes, for example, the use of concave mirrors to perform burning experiments, and the use of a burning glass by Lavoisier which was turned to follow the sun. More recent work includes the use of a field of many mirrors which are turned to follow the sun and which reflect their incident rays onto a boiler. The Honeywell company is presently employing a parabolic trough collector which is tipped to face the sun and which is turned to follow the sun by clockwork. Other methods of tracking the sun by solar energy collectors are disclosed in MECKLER U.S. Pat. No. 4,027,653 and NAPOLI ET AL U.S. Pat. No. 4,041,307.
The most commonly proposed and used solar energy systems today incorporate roof or sidewall panels fixedly connected to a house or other support; such panels for instance may include copper pipes through which water flows to be heated and then stored in an insulated storage tank. One such system is described in the Apr. 17, 1977 "New York Times", Section 8, page 1. Another currently used solar energy system employs a fixed curved solar collector which heats water flowing therethrough. The heated water heats and vaporizes freon, the freon in turn driving a turbine employed for example in pumping irrigation water. Such latter system is described in the "New York Times", Wednesday, May 25, 1977, page B1.